Cameron Diaz Talks The Media's Contempt For Single Women, Totally Nails It

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Single women everywhere, lend us your ears. We've found a new spokeswoman: Cameron Diaz

In the February issue of Self, the 41-year-old actress and newly-minted author calls out "chauvinism and misogyny" in the media, particularly the way that single women are often portrayed as victims of their inability to "hold on" to men. Diaz told Self's Erin Bried:

If a relationship fails, it’s because the woman couldn’t hold on to her man, not that the man cheated. It’s terrifying for a woman to get out of a relationship, because it’s always going to be her fault.

I get that a lot, being a single woman. The reports are always saying that I’m "acting inappropriately" toward men. I don’t at all harp on that s—, but I clock it. I notice it. And then I let it go because there is nothing I can do about it.

Diaz points out a frustrating truth about mainstream media's depiction of single women: the assumption that no woman chooses to be on her own. Sadly, single women's stigmatized status is nothing new. As Diaz notes, the suggestion is often that single women have made their bed when they can't (or -- dare we say -- choose not to) "hold on" to men, which somehow gives dudes permission to let their eyes wander.

Honestly, we're sure Cameron Diaz has a gorgeous bed that she is happy to sleep in, single or otherwise.

Cameron Diaz Talks The Media's Contempt For Single Women, Totally Nails It

Actresses Told They Weren&#039;t Pretty Enough

Actresses Told They Weren&#039;t Pretty Enough

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1. Winona Ryder

Winona Ryder <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/07/winona-ryder-interview-you-are-not-pretty-enough_n_3229779.html" target="_blank">recently spoke to Interview magazine's editor-in-chief Stephen Mooallem</a> about the discouraging comments one casting director made early on in her career:
I was in the middle of auditioning, and I was mid-sentence when the casting director said, "Listen, kid. You should not be an actress. You are not pretty enough. You should go back to where you came from and you should go to school. You don't have it."